While it was understandable that there were many differences within their cultures, the elves were clearly a little too uppity. They were letting this limit them in the sense that they did not easily accept other races' help.
That was why Clark found himself staring at the captain who had a decent amount of power. Just staring at him and waiting for an answer to his question. It was beginning to feel like he had come all this way just to waste his time.
"Wecan leave and instead, we will visit the dwarves and help them with the knowledge we offered you. That would make them our allies first. If that's the case, we will establish a better trade with them before you. We might not even need trade with the elves at all since the dwarfs have more developed technology."
Creation is hard, cheer me up!