Why is Illustrator filling the areas between the paths created by the pen tool?

First, I am very much a beginner with Illustrator (but have used other vector drawing programs) and always try to find the answer in the 531-page manual before bothering the community. So my apologies for what is probably a beginner's mistake.
I am marking up a drawing I imported from a raster file and and have ran Image Trace. I am trying to draw 2 perpendicular lines with the pen tool. However, when I complete the second line, it immediately files the space between the two lines with a black triangle. When I draw a square, same result - instead of a square formed by 4 lines with blank space in the middle, it fills the space with black.
Why would it do this? Is there some setting that I need to turn off? In the past, a pen line just drew a path and didn't create fills.
I am using Illustrator CC on Windows 8.1 (Surface Pro 2) if that's relevant to anything.
Thanks in advance!

Hi Buzz,
If i'm understanding correctly it sounds as though you have your colour applied to the fill instead of the stroke. All you have to do whilst having your shape selected or before you draw it is hit the arrow to the top right of that panel for it to switch to the stroke. Then click the white box with the red line through it for no fill in the areas you want no colour.
I hope that helps!

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Why is Illustrator filling the areas between the paths created by the pen tool?

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