When returning to the overworld from the end's portal it tells you that you died, clears your inventory, and returns you to the overworld like normal. If you have a totem it looks like it uses up that totem, but none of my stuff drops, just the experience like if I died.

Edit: It did not do this the first time I returned, It only did this after the point I respawned the dragon, and went off to the end islands.