A/N: Welcome everyone, to the first post-He Returns to Him in Battle vignette. These chapters are follow ups to my other work, He Returns to Him in Battle, which may be found in (now) censored form on this website, and in complete form on my Deviant Art profile under "laureen-lycan" at:

laureen-lycan dot deviantart dot com slash gallery

These are in no particular order, though I'll try to make it obvious where in the timeline these are set.

For He Returns fans, I know this is short, but my creative energies aren't what they were when I had more time, and I wrote this tonight, and thought I should post it.

Unmitigated Reality

When I awoke, I immediately became assaulted by a dense, smothering fog of disorientation. The harsh, holy light streaming in through the windows blinded my visage, and the coarse bedclothes underneath me seemed hostile, grating against my naked, recently slumbering form.

As my disjointed, frenetic thoughts strained to coagulate, my hands reached up as of their own accord and began rubbing my stunned eyes, shielding them protectively from the light to which I seemed so unaccustomed.

When I lowered my palms – now smooth and uncalloused – I turned my eyes to my surroundings, expecting to be greeted by the lavish furniture of my chamber in the Demon Realm.

I was instead assailed by the austere, spartan furniture of the cottage in the woods.

Unmitigated recollection.

I remembered, now, the events reeling through my stricken mind in reverse chronology: Zelda showing me the cottage, running into the Surface immigrants from Skyloft, waking up in the forest near the Grounds, and that last, agonizing encounter with Ghirahim...

At the thought of my demon, my fingers protested at the intensity which they now clutched the rough bedsheets, so different in quality from the silken silver and crimson bedclothes to which I'd grown accustomed.

I inhaled, the pure, energizing air an essence that was now foreign to me, ragged in my lungs' passages.

Seconds, minutes ticked away while I forcibly drank in my new, yet familiar, reality. The light of Hylia's realm continued to sear painfully against my vision.

It was with another shaking breath that I contemplated the necessity of returning to my life in the sunlit realm. As the Hero from the Sky. As one of Hyrule's destined leaders.

As Hylia's Chosen Knight, who must now forget he and the Demon Lord were anything but mortal enemies.

My fingernails pushed through the brittle fabric of my bedsheets, staining them with crimson tears.

I shut my eyes against the holy light, eyelids holding back iridescent drops that must never be shed.